The time of totality was terrific. We at the Lutheran Heritage Center and Museum had an outstanding day yesterday. I will take some more time off from family research to describe our experiences during this astronomical gathering.

We consider ourselves to be extremely blessed to be in the path of totality for a solar eclipse twice during the past 7 years. This time around, we had several Lutheran schools who made plans to view the eclipse at our site in Altenburg, so our museum made plans to be open all day with plenty of volunteer docents to help entertain the crowd that we anticipated. We had students here from Immanuel Lutheran School in St. Charles, Lutheran High School from St. Charles, and Christ the King Lutheran School from Memphis, Tennessee. Another group from St. Paul’s Lutheran School in Des Peres was hoping to be here also, but the traffic slowed them down so much that they did not make it all the way here.

Folks began arriving at our site during the morning. They came in buses, vans, and cars. We even had a few docents assigned to manage the parking at our museum.

The lawn area around our church and museum became a viewing area that attracted a crowd much bigger than we anticipated. School groups, as well as several other visitors parked themselves on the ground and in lawn chairs to view the upcoming eclipse. Even a few amateur astronomers set up their telescopes on our lawn.

Prior to the eclipse, I was able to lead some of the elementary students on a short trip through a scale model of the solar system in an attempt to explain why eclipses occur.

KMOV Channel 4 in St. Louis was here to report on one of the school groups who traveled all the way here to view the eclipse.

The segment that made the evening broadcast can be viewed by clicking on the link below. The part highlighting our museum is at about the 4 minute mark of the video.

https://www.firstalert4.com/2024/04/09/watch-great-american-eclipse/

The 4 minutes of totality was the highlight of the day. Applause was heard amongst the crowd, along with many ooh’s and ah’s. Our docents were also able to view this incredible event. The museum even had an eerie glow during totality. The city’s street lights came on, and some local cows were seen to be affected by the darkness.

A friend shared a few photos he took of the moments of totality that we experienced, including the diamond ring effect that we viewed as the sun began to emerge from behind the moon.

We are not able to say exactly how many folks came to our museum to view this eclipse, but we are certain it was several hundred. So many people took the time as they left Altenburg to say how much they appreciated the fact that we were open for the day and provided such a magnificent place to see the eclipse. Most of them also took the time to tour our museum while they were here and learn some of our history. It will certainly go down as a very successful event hosted by our museum during its history.

Some other interesting highlights of the day:

• Prior to the eclipse, a family group with Perry County roots was entering our museum at the same time an old buddy of mine, a retired Lutheran educator, was coming up the steps. The teacher recognized one of the family members as being a former student of his. It was a great reunion with “Act of God” type of timing.
• We had a descendant of Rev. C.F.W. Walther in our museum during the day.
• On a personal note, my wife and I were blessed to see 4 of our former students from our days of teaching in Memphis. They were here with their own children who now attend the same school as their parents did.

For us locals, this was a “twice in a lifetime” event. It will not happen again for a long, long, long time, certainly not in my lifetime.